Up to you
by tvgirl123
Summary: Stiles and Isaac don't get along, but Stiles is running out of time and has to make sure Scott will be okay. Part 1 of the Frontotemporal Dementia series.


"Where are you going?" the Sheriff asked Stiles as he came down the stairs. He had dark circles under eyes from another sleepless night. Stiles looked up, sent a small, tired smile, and said, "I'm going to Scott's for a little bit, do you know where my keys are?"

The Sheriff sighed, they had to take away Stiles' keys away a month ago. One of his deputies had found Stiles weaving in and out of traffic. Stiles had been trying to remember his way home for almost an hour. When he was brought home, he tossed the keys towards his dad and told him to do whatever the hell he wanted with the jeep before running up to his bedroom. He was inconsolable for days. Nothing cheered him up, not even Scott offering to have a _Star Wars _marathon with him.

"Stiles, we had to take your keys away last month, remember?" the sheriff said delicatley. Stiles' grin slowly melted off his face. John hated seeing the same thing that happened to his wife happen to his son. His son had had such a bright future ahead of him and now somedays he couldn't even remember how to tie his shoes. After a couple seconds of somber silence, Stiles replied with a dejected "oh yeah,".

"You know I can take you over there if you want," John volunteered.

"No dad, you're busy. I can just walk or something," Stiles said. Stiles hated this. He hated what he was doing to his father. He could see how tired his father was and how much this was taking a toll on him. It didn't help that he found the empty whiskey bottles either. "It's fine Stiles, just let me get the keys," John replied and went to go fetch his keys.

Stiles watched his father leave the room. The thing was he wasn't going to see Scott, he was going to go talk to Isaac. He wasn't blind to Scott and Isaac's close friendship and needed to discuss some things with Isaac without Scott knowing. Stiles knew that Scott was out with Kira and wouldn't be home untill late.

"Ready to go?" his father asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah," Stiles replied.

"Call me if you need anything," John yelled out the car window. Stiles waved a hand of recognition as he walked up to the McCall front door. He didn't even bother knocking and just walked right in. Melissa was sitting on the couch, watching tv when Stiles barged in. Melissa didn't hear the door open and jumped about five hundred feet in the air when Stiles made his prescence known.

"Stiles what the hell!" Melissa cried. She loved the boy like her own son, but sometimes his actions worried her. The fact that he was slowly losing his mind worried her more, though.

"Sorry, Melissa. I didn't know you were in here," he said with a sheepish look on his face. Melissa had been helping his dad out lately and he would be eternally grateful. He couldn't keep up with watching after his father's eating habits when sometimes he couldn't even remember his father's name.

Melissa gave him a tight smile, "You know it still scares me you had a key made for yourself."

"It was either that or to continue scaling your house and climbing through Scott's window," Stiles remarked. He was quite proud of himself when he saw the look of shocked exasperation appear on her face.

"I don't even want to know," she confessed. Stiles felt a grin creep up on his face. He thought of how when he and Scott were little and would mess with her all the time. They would play hide and seek so Stiles wouldn't have to leave or they would destroy the kitchen with whatever monstrosity they were trying to create. He remembers the time they tried to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich milkshake and ended up ruining their blender and somehow catching it on fire. These memories forced his throat become thick with emotion when he realized that this time next year he would be dead or be so far from himself that being dead would be better.

"Stiles, Stiles honey are you listening to me?" he looked at Melissa who was staring at him with a worried look on her face.

"What? Yeah, sorry. Did I space out? I keep doing that. A lot actually. I seem to space out all the time, like I'm as far as the milkey way. And now I'm rambling . I do that a lot too. And now I'm gonna shut up," he trailed offed hastily.

"It's fine, sweetheart. Did you come over for any particular reason? Not that I don't love having you but Scott isn't here right now. He's on a date with Kira," Melissa retorted. As a matter of fact she had noticed his spacing out, everybody had. He had always had trouble focusing but now it was like he couldn't focus on anything and if he did sometimes he didn't even remember it. John had told her about the school cutting him some slack, but his grades still took a turn. Not that anyone could blame him when he was going to die of the same disease his mother had.

"Yeah, I was actually going to go talk to Isaac," Stiles said, "so... he's up in his room, right?"

That struck Melissa as odd. Those two never got along. Recently Isaac seemed to be trying, but Stiles picked a fight with him on everything. Because if Isaac was nice to him then Stiles had to acknowledge that something was wrong, and sometimes he couldn't do that. Melissa sighed,"He was the last time I checked."

"Okay, thanks," Stiles said as he passed by and pecked her cheek. Then he pretty much ran up the stairs, tripping on his way up. Melissa let out a deep breath when he was gone. She didn't know what they were going to do when he was gone.

Isaac was lying on his bed when he heard Stilinski running up the stairs, falling, and then getting up again to continue his run. Why he couldn't walk up the stairs, or do anything, like a normal person Isaac would never know. Isaac was trying to give him a chance for two reasons. One because Stilinski was Scott's best friend, and he wanted to make Scott happy. Two because he didn't want to be an asshole to the guy who has frontotemporal dementia. He had no idea why Stiles was here, but he prayed to whatever god was out there that Stiles made it quick. Stiles then burst through his door, without knocking by the way, and muttered a slightly out of breath, "We need to talk."

Isaac took a deep, calming breath and responded as politely as he could, "What do you want?"

"I have decided that I need to train you in Being Scott McCall's Best Friend:101," Stiles claimed.

Isaac's annoyance now started to turn into confusion. He didn't know what the hell Stiles was talking about. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"As you may know I have this condition that is probably going to kill me dead soon. So Scott's going to need a new best friend to look out for him and make sure he doesn't make any dumbass decisions when I'm gone. Don't think I haven't noticed your guys' bromance going on lately and that is why I have designated today to teach you all things Scott McCall," Stiles said in all of one breath.

"Stiles..." Isaac had no idea what the hell to say to that. What do you say to a guy who wants to give you pointers on how to be another guy's best friend because the said first guy is going to die?

"Look, Scott is practically my brother and I have to make sure he is going to be okay. Because if our positions were switched I would have no idea what to do without him and if I'm correct Scott probably feels the same way about me. I can see it when he looks at me. How he looks like he's about to cry when I ask about his relationship with Allison instead of Kira or when I can't remember where my locker or house is. So just shut up and listen to me. Please. If you're not going to do this for me do it for Scott," Stiles pleaded. Isaac had never seen him so desperate.

Taking a deep breath Isaac replied without any sarcasm or mocking remarks, "Okay tell me everything you think I need to know about being Scott McCall's best friend."

A small smile appeared on Stiles' face, "First thing first: always let Scott be the Batman in the relationship. He is an awful sidekick. He won't remember important stuff you have planned, will constantly talk about Kira nonstop, or bitch about Derek or the twins. But he takes control of hard situations and is so loyal he rivals a golden retriever..."

Stiles had went over everything he could think of that had to do with Scott for almost two hours. Isaac can't even believe Stiles focused that long or the fact that he himself actually listened. Anybody could see how much Stiles loved Scott and he wasn't going to take away the little security Stiles would get from this conversation.

"The last thing you need to know is Scott mopes. A lot. So I need you to promise me that you'll help him get on with his life. Don't let him wallow too long or I'll come back and haunt both of your asses," Stiles smirked.

"That's not funny and you know it," Isaac said.

"Come on, it's a little funny," Stiles said and then saw Isaac's face. "Okay maybe it isn't. But if I don't make jokes I'll go crazy. I just can't sit here and sulk for the rest of my life. And let's face it that life isn't going to last long." Stiles could feel his heart start to race and his breath quicken,"I'm gonna die, dude. I'm gonna die and leave everyone behind. My father's going to start drinking again and Scott's going to be clueless and Lydia will probably cry and -"

"Woah man, breathe. Okay, take a deep breath and let it out. In and out. In and out," Isaac repeated this until Stiles' breathing returned to normal and then gave him a concerned look. Stiles took a breath and looked Isaac straight in the eye, "It's up to you. You have to make sure everything goes back to normal. Promise me you'll try to get everything back to normal."

Isaac took what felt like his thousandth deep breath. Who did Stiles think he was to put all of this on his shoulders? He couldn't promise that everything would go back to normal because nothing would. But he couldn't not promise this to the guy who just wants to make sure his family and friends are going to be okay. So Isaac replied with something he would probably regret, "I promise."

That gave Stiles a little flicker of hope that things could possibly go back to normal. So he got up, clapped Isaac on the shoulder and muttered, "Thanks man. You have no idea what this means to me."

"Yeah, no problem." Isaac said so quietly he almost whispered.

Stiles started walking out the door and uttered an awkward goodbye. As he was leaving Isaac spoke up, "Stiles, wait."

Stiles turned around with a confused look on his face, "What?"

"I'm, um, I'm sorry. About everything."

"Me too."


End file.
